Digital filter spectrum sensor

ABSTRACT

A spectrum sensing method includes (a) receiving an incident radiation simultaneously through a filter array composed of multiple bandpass filters, (b) digitizing spectral responses of the filter array, and (c) generating an estimate of spectral profile of the incident radiation based on digitized spectral responses of the filter array.

The present application claims benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication 60/929,712, filed Jul. 10, 2007, which is incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Optical spectroscopy technology has been widely used to detect andquantify the characteristics or concentration of a physical, chemical orbiological target object. Optical diagnostics using this opticalspectroscopy allows for the ability to obtain chemical and biologicalinformation without taking a physical specimen or the ability to obtaininformation in a non-destructive method with a physical specimen. Thechallenge is that the adoption of this technology has been limited dueto the size of equipment and its cost. Therefore, its application washistorically limited to centralized labs with scaled testing protocols.The opportunity now exists to develop a compact and low costspectrometer. Among those previous efforts to miniaturize thespectrometer to expand the application of this optical spectroscopy intobroader uses, the planar waveguide-based, grating-based, andFabry-Perot-based techniques have been the major approaches. Recentlythere also have been efforts to miniaturize the spectrometer into chipscale using plasmonic nano-optic methods.

One of the issues encountered when trying to miniaturize thespectrometer is the resolution degradation. The resolution is usuallydominated by the optics, especially by the distance from the input slitwhere the input light comes into the system to the detector array (orPDA, photo diode array). The shorter the distances, are the higher theresolution degradation. In case of non-dispersion methods or spectrumsensor using sets of filters, the number of the filters and shape orbandwidth (FWHM: Full Width Half Maximum) of each filter dominate thedegradation. The more number of filters and the narrower FWHM providesthe higher resolution.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The methods and the systems to enhance the resolution of the opticalspectrometer or spectrum sensor, and its applications are disclosed. Thespectral responses of the filter array of the spectrum sensor aredigitized through sampling and quantization, and stored to form a matrixof filter function. The filter function matrix is used to get theestimates of the spectral profile of the input through the variousestimate techniques with known input constraints and boundaryconditions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of spectrum sensor using digitizedspectral responses of filter array;

FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C show the perspective views of different types ofplasmonic nano-optic filter devices;

FIG. 3 is a graphical representation of processing unit within thespectrum sensor;

FIG. 4 shows the conceptual diagram for the operation of the LeastSquare estimate, equalization, or matrices inversion, or Moore-Penrosepseudoinverse;

FIGS. 5A-5D and 6A-6D are plots of intensity (arbitrary units) versuswavelength.

FIG. 5A is an example of spectral profile of an input light;

FIG. 5B is an example of a spectral response of the broad bandwidthfilter;

FIG. 5C shows the output result without the resolution enhancementoperation;

FIG. 5D shows the output result with the resolution enhancementoperation;

FIG. 6A shows spectral responses of 40 broad bandwidth and multipeakfilter sets;

FIG. 6B shows the spectral responses of forty individual filters;

FIG. 7 shows the output results of three different LEDs (Red, Green andBlue) using the spectrum sensor through resolution enhancement operationusing digitized spectral response data of filters.

FIG. 8A shows the schematic representation of the wireless spectrumsensor.

FIG. 8B shows a prospective representation of a wireless spectrum sensoraround a target.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Unless otherwise specified, the words “a” or “an” as used herein mean“one or more”. The term “light” includes visible light as well as UV andIR radiation. The invention includes the following embodiments.

In FIG. 1, a digital filter spectrum sensor 100 is shown containing aset of filters 110, and a set or array of detectors 120 (such as a photodiode array or another suitable photodetector array), and signalprocessing unit 130. The filters may be made of dielectric or metallicmaterials, may be waveguide structures or grating structures orFabry-Perot etalon structures or plasmonic filter structures. Theexamples of plasmonic filter structures are shown in FIGS. 2A, 2B, and2C. In FIG. 2A, the plasmonic filter device 210 shows the metallicnanowire or island structure. In FIG. 2B, the plasmonic filter device220 shows the metallic film with apertures or holes. Examples of suchdevices 210 and 220 are described for example in U.S. publishedapplication US 2006/0273245 A1, which is incorporated by reference inits entirety. In FIG. 2C, the plasmonic filter device 230 shows themetallic embossing structures on a metal film. Examples of such device230 are described for example in U.S. provisional application Ser. No.60/877,660 filed on Dec. 29, 2006, which is incorporated by reference inits entirety. The plurality of metal islands, multiple apertures inmetal film or metal embossing array on a metal film are configured suchthat the incident light is resonant with at least one plasmon mode onthe structures in said metal film or metal islands. A predeterminedwavelength will perturb the metallic plasmonic structures in surfaceplasmon energy bands for the wavelength selective transmission of light.The filter device is located either on a dielectric substrate or inbetween two dielectric layers.

The spectral response 111 of each filter may show single peak as shownin FIG. 5B or multi-peaks as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. The spectralresponses of individual filters can be measured at the time when thefilters are fabricated or during the period when the filters are used.The measured spectral response data is digitalized through sampling inwavelength domain over the whole interest wavelength range andquantization. The sampling rate will be no less than the desiredwavelength resolution. For example, if the desired resolution is 10 nmover the 400 nm range from 380 nm to 780 nm, the sampling rate will beno less than 40 times in such a way the spectral response of a filter ismeasured at 485 nm, 495 nm, 505 nm, . . . , and 775 nm, or more. Thenthe measured data is quantized to a digital data at a defined scale. Forexample, if the defined scale is 8-bit, the measured data is convertedinto 8-bit digital data. If the defined scale is 16-bit, the measureddata is converted into 16-bit digital data. The digitalized filter datanow will be stored in the processing unit 130, more specifically in thedesignated memory 331 of the processing unit.

In FIG. 3, a processing unit 300 of the digital filter spectrum sensor100 is shown containing a communication unit 340, a processor 310 (suchas any suitable logic chip or device, such as an ASIC or a computerlogic portion), a memory 320 (such as any suitable volatile ornon-volatile memory device or computer portion) for program run, and adesignated memory 331 for digitalized filter data. The communicationunit 340 can a serial or parallel connector or can be a wirelesscommunication unit such as a Bluetooth or Wibree, Zigbee, Wireless USB,or Wi-Fi or the variations of those. The memory 331 is preferably anon-volatile memory. In the implementation, this processing unit mayreside within the same spectrum sensor device 100 or may be a separatechip or computer connected to the spectrum sensor device 100. Theprocessing operations may be conducted by software stored in computer orby hardware of the processor 310 depending on the desired configurationand if a computer or a chip is used as a processor.

In FIG. 1, the input light I_(input) 140 goes through the filterresponse f_(response) 111 and detector response d_(response) 121 to getan output matrix O_(output) 122 which is Nx1 array format. The detectorresponse d_(response) 121 is typically identical to all the detectorsacross whole detector array. When digitalized, the filter responsef_(response) 111 and detector response d_(response) 121 are multipliedto combine the spectral responses into a single spectral response matrixF such that F₁=(d₁×f₁₁, d₂×f₁₂ . . . d_(N)×f_(1N)), F₂=(d₁×f₂₁, d₂×f₂₂ .. . d_(N)×f_(2N)), and F_(N)=(d₁×f_(N1), d₂×f_(N2) . . . d_(N)×f_(NN)).The O_(output) now can be expressed as F×I_(input)+n=O_(output) where nis noise. When the noise n is negligible, the unknown input I_(input)can be calculated or estimated through the matrix inversion operationsuch as

I _(input) _(—) _(estimate) =F ⁻¹ ×O _(output) or

I _(input) _(—) _(estimate) =F ⁺ ×O _(output) where F⁺ is psudoinverseof F.

Since the pseudoinverse provides a least squares solution to a system oflinear equations, preferably, pseudoinverse operation may be used formost estimates. In FIG. 4 shows how the set of digital filterinformation is used to get an estimate or to calculate the input levelat each wavelength point. Preferably, M (number of estimate point for aninput)=N (number of filters used) where either matrx inverse orpsudoinverse may be used.

In mathematics, the pseudoinverse A⁺ of a matrix A is the unique matrixsatisfying the following criteria:

1. AA⁺A=A;

2. A⁺AA⁺=A⁺ (A⁺ is a weak inverse for the multiplicative semigroup);

3. (AA⁺)*=AA⁺ (AA⁺ is Hermitian); and

4. (A⁺A)*=A⁺A (A⁺A is also Hermitian).

Here M* is the conjugate transpose of a matrix M. For matrices whoseelements are real numbers instead of complex numbers, M*=M^(T).

An alternative way to define the pseudoinverse is via a limitingprocess:

$A^{+} = {{\lim\limits_{\deltaarrow 0}{( {{A^{*}A} + {\delta \; I}} )^{- 1}A^{*}}} = {\lim\limits_{\deltaarrow 0}{A^{*}( {{AA}^{*} + {\delta \; I}} )}^{- 1}}}$

These limits exist even if (AA*)⁻¹ and (A*A)⁻¹ do not exist.

a. Properties

-   -   Pseudoinversion is reversible. It is its own inverse: (A⁺)⁺=A.    -   The pseudoinverse of a zero matrix is its transpose.    -   Pseudoinversion commutes with transposition, conjugation, and        taking the conjugate transpose:

(A ^(T))⁺=(A)^(T),

A ⁺= A⁺ and

(A ^(*))⁺=(A ⁺)*.

-   -   The pseudoinverse of a scalar multiple of A is the reciprocal        multiple of A⁺:

(αA)⁺=α⁻¹ A ⁺ for α≠0.

-   -   If the pseudoinverse of A*A is already known, it may be used to        compute A⁺:

A ⁺=(A*A)⁺ A*.

-   -   Likewise, if (AA*)⁺ is already known:

A ⁺ =A*(AA*)⁺.

b. Special Cases

If the columns of A are linearly independent, then A*A is invertible. Inthis case, an explicit formula is:

A ⁺=(A*A)⁻¹ A*.

It follows that A⁺ is a left inverse of A: A⁺A=I.

If the rows of A are linearly independent, then AA* is invertible. Inthis case, an explicit formula is:

A ⁺ =A*(AA*)⁻¹.

It follows that A⁺ is a right inverse of A: AA⁺=I.

If both columns and rows are linearly independent (that is, for squarenonsingular matrices), the pseudoinverse is just the inverse:

A⁺=A⁻¹.

If A and B are such that the product AB is defined and either A or B isunitary, then (AB)⁺=B⁺A⁺. If A and B are such that the product AB isdefined, A is of full column rank, and B is of full row rank, then(AB)⁺=B⁺A⁺. The second case here does not cover the first; a unitarymatrix must be of full rank, but otherwise there is no assumption madeon the matrix it multiplies.

It is also possible to define a pseudoinverse for scalars and vectors.This amounts to treating these as matrices. The pseudoinverse of ascalar x is zero if x is zero and the reciprocal of x otherwise:

$x^{+} = \{ \begin{matrix}{0,} & {{{{if}\mspace{14mu} x} = 0};} \\{x^{- 1},} & {{otherwise}.}\end{matrix} $

The pseudoinverse of the null vector is the transposed null vector. Thepseudoinverse of other vectors is the conjugate transposed vectordivided by its squared magnitude:

$x^{+} = \{ \begin{matrix}{0^{T},} & {{{{if}\mspace{14mu} x} = 0};} \\{\frac{x^{*}}{x^{*}x},} & {{otherwise}.}\end{matrix} $

For a proof, simply check that these definitions meet the definingcriteria for the pseudoinverse.

c. Finding the Pseudoinverse of a Matrix

Let k be the rank of a m×nmatrix A. Then A can be decomposed as A=BC,where B is a m×k-matrix and C is a k×nmatrix. Then

A ⁺ =C*(CC*)⁻¹(B*B)⁻¹ B*.

If A has full row rank, so that k=m, then B can be chosen to be theidentity matrix and the formula reduces to A⁺=A*(AA*)⁻¹. Similarly, if Ahas full column rank (that is, k=n), then A⁺=(A*A)⁻¹A*.

A computationally simpler way to get the pseudoinverse is using thesingular value decomposition.

If A=UΣV* is the singular value decomposition of A, then A⁺=VΣ⁺U*. For adiagonal matrix such as Σ, we get the pseudoinverse by taking thereciprocal of each non-zero element on the diagonal.

Optimized approaches exist for calculating the pseudoinverse of blockstructured matrices.

If a pseudoinverse is already known for a given matrix, and thepseudoinverse is desired for a related matrix, the pseudoinverse for therelated matrix can be computed using specialized algorithms that mayneed less work. In particular, if the related matrix differs from theoriginal one by only a changed, added or deleted row or column,incremental algorithms exist that exploit the relationship.

d. Applications

The pseudoinverse provides a least squares solution to a system oflinear equations. Given an overdetermined system with independentcolumns

Ax=b,

we look for a vector x that minimizes

∥Ax−b∥²,

where ∥•∥ denotes the Euclidean norm.

The general solution to an inhomogeneous system Ax=b is the sum of aparticular solution of the inhomogeneous system and the general solutionof the corresponding homogeneous system Ax=0.

Lemma: If (AA*)⁻¹ exists, then the solution x can always be written asthe sum of the pseudoinverse solution of the inhomogeneous system and asolution of the homogeneous system:

x=A*(AA*)⁻¹ b+(1−A*(AA*)⁻¹ A)y.

Proof:

$\begin{matrix}{{Ax} = {{{{AA}^{*}( {AA}^{*} )}^{- 1}b} + {Ay} - {{{AA}^{*}( {AA}^{*} )}^{- 1}{Ay}}}} \\{= {b + {Ay} - {Ay}}} \\{= {b.}}\end{matrix}$

Here, the vector y is arbitrary (apart from the dimensionality). In bothsummands, the pseudoinverse A*(AA*)⁻¹ appears. If we write it as A⁺, theequation looks like this:

x=A ⁺ b+(1−A ⁺ A)y.

The first summand is the pseudoinverse solution. In the sense of theleast squares error, it is the best linear approximation to the actualsolution. This means that the correction summand has minimal euclideannorm. The second summand represents a solution of the homogeneous systemAx=0, because (1−A⁺A) is the projection on the kernel (null space) of A,while (A⁺A)=A*(AA*)⁻¹A is the projection onto the image(range) of A (thespace spanned by the column vectors of A). The Moore Penrosepseudoinverse is described in more detail below.

As is usually the case in most signal processing system, however, therewill be noises in this digital filter spectrum sensor system. The noisenegatively impacts on estimating the input value, reducing the accuracyof the system. To remove or reduce the noise effects, simple spatialaveraging or time averaging can be used. Spatial averaging uses themultiple identical sets of filters to receive the input at differentphysical locations on detector array. Time averaging uses multiple datareading through the same detector. The multiple outputs of the detectorscan be averaged, or multiple of the input estimates through the matricesinversion can be averaged.

Further, when the noise n is not negligible as in most practical cases,the unknown input can be estimated through various Least Square estimatemethods with various types of constraints, as summarized in thefollowing references: Roman Z Morawski, REVIEW ARTICLE,Spectrophotometric applications of digital signal processing, Meas. Sci.Technol. 17 (2006) R117-R144, and Cheng-Chun Chang and Heung-No Lee, Onthe estimation of target spectrum for filter array based spectrometers,21 Jan. 2008/Vol. 16, No. 2/OPTICS EXPRESS 1056, which are incorporatedby reference in their entirety.

In the Chang et. al. reference the Least Square estimate operation isfurther explained in detail as following. The transformation between thetarget spectrum and the CCD-sensor outputs is associated by the matrixequation

r=Hs+n,  (1)

where the dimensionalities of r, H, s, and n are N×1, N×M, M×1, and N×1,respectively.

Suppose r is an observed signal vector. Working on the observationvector, an estimator provides an estimation ŝ of the input spectrum byconsidering all possible source signal-vectors s. One criterion whichcan be used as the starting point is the maximum a posteriori (MAP)rule. The MAP estimator is obtained by maximizing the posteriorprobability, i.e.,

$\begin{matrix}{{\hat{s}}_{MAP} = {\arg \; {\max\limits_{S}{{P( {sr} )}.}}}} & (2)\end{matrix}$

From the Bayes' rule, the posterior probability can be written asP(s|r)=P(r|s)P(s)/P(r). Therefore, there is no information on the sourcesignal such that P(s) is uniformly-distributed, the MAP estimator can besimplified to the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator. The ML estimatormaximizes the likelihood function, i.e.,

$\begin{matrix}{{\hat{s}}_{ML} = {\arg \; {\max\limits_{S}{{P( {sr} )}.}}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

For the filter-array spectrometer, the observed signal vector, r, andthe source signal vector, s, can be associated by Eq. (1) as discussed.Now assume the noise vector n is multivariate Gaussian with zero meanand covariance matrix R_(n), i.e., E[n]=0, and E[nn^(T)]=R_(n), wherethe superscript T denotes the transpose operation The ML estimator thenis obtained by maximizing the likelihood function

$\begin{matrix}{{P( {sr} )} = {\frac{1}{( {2\; \pi} )^{N/2}{R_{n}}^{1/2}}{{\exp\lbrack {{- \frac{1}{2}}( {r - {Hs}} )^{T}{R_{n}^{- 1}( {r - {Hs}} )}} \rbrack}.}}} & (4)\end{matrix}$

To solve for the estimator, it is equivalent to find the vector s whichminimizes −2r^(T)R_(n) ⁻¹Hs+s^(T)H^(T)R_(n) ⁻¹Hs. The solution can befound by solving the partial differential equation ∂(−2r^(T)R_(n)⁻¹Hs+s^(T)H^(T)R_(n) ⁻¹Hs)/∂s=0. Providing that the matrix H^(T)R_(n)⁻¹H is nonsingular (i.e., inverse exists), the solution of this is

ŝ _(ML)=(H ^(T) R _(n) ⁻ H)⁻¹ H ^(T) R _(n) ⁻¹ r.  (5)

Furthermore, if there is no knowledge about the correlation of theGaussian noise vector (or if the elements are mutually independent), itis reasonable to substitute the covariant matrix R_(n) by an identitymatrix I. Thus the ML estimator, Eq. (5), is reduced to theleast-squares (LS) estimator, i.e.,

ŝ _(LS)=(H ^(T) H)⁻¹ H ^(T) r.  (6)

It requires that the inverse of H^(T)H matrix exists. Recall that thedimensionality of H is N×M. For solution to exist, M needs to be lessthan or equal to N such that the M×M H^(T)H matrix is possibly fullrank. That is, the number of filters used in the filter-arrayspectrometer needs to be greater than or equal to the number of resolvedpoints in the wavelength-domain. For the most efficient and practicalconsideration, take M=N, i.e., H is a square matrix. Then the LSestimator can be reduced to

ŝ _(inv)=(H ^(T) H)⁻¹ H ^(T) r=H ⁻¹ r.  (7)

It is worth to mention that, for zero-mean noise, the ŝ_(ML), ŝ_(LS),and ŝ_(inv) are unbiased, e.g., E[ŝ_(ML)]=(H^(T)R_(n) ⁻¹H)⁻¹H^(T)R_(n)⁻¹Hs=s. Therefore, for a fixed unknown source signal vector s, one mayhave the received signal vector r measured multiple times over eitherthe temporal or spatial domain. This unbiased property ensures theenhancement of estimation accuracy after averaging operation. Theestimation-error covariance-matrix of the ML estimator, Eq. (5), can becalculated and expressed as E[(ŝ−s)(ŝ−s)^(T)]=(H^(T)R_(n) ⁻¹H)⁻¹. Wenote that it is a function of the filter matrix H. Thus, it can show howgood an estimator can be for a particular filter array. Although thecovariance matrix of system noise R_(n) is fixed, the variance of theestimation error can be amplified by the detector sensitivity matrix H.Of interest is the case that H is a square matrix. Conventionally, thesingular value decomposition (SVD) is considered as a powerful techniqueto deal with the noise amplification issue. This method computes theinverse of the H matrix based on the singular value decomposition wherean Eigen value less than a certain threshold can be discarded. Byexploiting the non-negative nature of the spectral content, thenon-negative constrained least-squares (NNLS) algorithm worksparticularly well to estimate the target spectral. NNLS can be seen as amember of the family of the least squares estimator. NNLS returns thevector ŝ that minimizes the norm ∥Hŝ−r∥₂ subject to ŝ>0. The originaldesign of the algorithm was by C. L. Lawson, and R. J. Hanson. Althoughthe NNLS algorithm solves the solution iteratively, the iteration alwaysconverges.

The input example shown in FIG. 5A is the spectral profile of a typicalfluorescence lamp. When this input is read or measured by the set 40 ofthe broad bandwidth filters whose FWHM (Full Width Half Maximum) isabout 60 nm as shown in FIG. 5B, the output spectral profile, shown assquare dot line in FIG. 5C, through these 40 filters and detectors isnot very close to the original input spectral profile. However, when thematrices inversion operation is executed, the input estimates, shown assquare dot line in FIG. 5D now become much more closer to the originalinput spectral profile. FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B show another example offilter set with the broad bandwidth and multi-peaks used to detect thespectral profile of LEDs (Red, Green and Blue). As shown in FIG. 7, thedigital filter spectrum sensor with these kind of broad bandwidth andmulti-peaks can rebuild the spectral profile of three LEDs, quiteclosely to the original LEDs' spectral profile. Noticeably, thebandwidth of the filter used is close to 100 nm, but the digital filterspectrum sensor system reconstructs the input signals at higherresolution such as 10 nm. Also the known spectral information of theLEDs, input lights, can be utilized to estimate further closer to theoriginal signals. This color measurement capability will find lots ofuseful application areas in color measurement or monitoring for flatpanel display, printed materials, or even in bio applications. Themeasured spectral information can be mapped into color domain data indifferent format such as CIE systems, such as CIELUV or CIELAB or CIE1931 or CIE 1976.

Because of its compact size and reasonable resolution, the digitalspectrum sensor can be used in many applications where the small size isdesired. Such applications may include mobile or wearable devices tomonitor personal health, high resolution color monitoring for the colorinput, display and output devices, environmental monitoring sensors suchas water or air quality sensors. For some of those applications,wireless solution may be more desirable. As shown in FIG. 8A and FIG.8B, the wireless spectrum sensor has one or more embedded wireless units702 mounted on a holder (such as a substrate or a band) along withspectrum sensor 704, one or more light sources 701, and a power unit703, such as a battery unit or power generator. The holder may haveembedded circuits connecting these embedded units. This wireless digitalspectrum sensor may be located adjacent to or wrap around the targetobject, such as a human or animal body part or an inanimate object, orthe container of the target object to be measured, or the passage orpipeline where the target objects (such as any suitable fluid) to bemeasured pass through. If the power unit 703 is a power generator, thenthis power generator may utilize wireless RF power to generate theelectrical power and/or it may utilize the flow of said object, such aswater or other fluid, to generate power.

Although the foregoing refers to particular preferred embodiments, itwill be understood that the present invention is not so limited. It willoccur to those of ordinary skill in the art that various modificationsmay be made to the disclosed embodiments and that such modifications areintended to be within the scope of the present invention.

All of the publications, patent applications and patents cited in thisspecification are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety,including the following references:

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Moore Penrose Pseudoinverse

The Moore Penrose Pseudoinverse is the generalization of the inverse ofan m×n matrix. It is commonly used to compute a ‘best fit’ (leastsquares) solution to a system of linear equations. In a solution, it isused to compute the original signals from the filtered version of thedata.

One can find the Pseudoinverse, A+ of a matrix A as follows,

A+=(A*A)̂(−1)A*

Where A* is the transpose of the matrix and ̂(−1) means to find theregular inverse.

If ‘O ’ is the original signal data, and ‘F’ is non-square matrixrepresenting the filter data, and ‘A’ is the data received from thesensors,

O=(F+)A

1. A spectrum sensor, comprising: a photodetector array; an array ofoptical filters; a processing unit for spectral resolution enhancement;and wherein in use: a combined spectral response data of said the arrayof optical filters and the photodetector array are sampled, quantizedand stored in digital format; and a digitized spectral response data ofthe array of optical filters and the photodetector array is used togenerate a high resolution estimate of spectral profile of input light.2. A spectrum sensor set forth in claim 1, wherein the optical filterarray comprises a plasmonic optical filter array comprising a pluralityof metal islands, or multiple apertures in a metal film or a metalembossing array.
 3. A spectrum sensor set forth in claim 2, wherein: theoptical filter array is located either on a dielectric substrate or inbetween two dielectric layers; and said plurality of metal islands,multiple apertures in metal film or metal embossing array on a metalfilm are configured such that the incident light is resonant with atleast one plasmon mode on the structures in said metal film or metalislands; and a predetermined wavelength will perturb the metallicplasmonic structures in surface plasmon energy bands to assist thewavelength selective transmission of light.
 4. A spectrum sensor setforth in claim 1, wherein the optical filter array comprises adielectric film, metal film, waveguide structures, grating structures,or Fabry-Perot etalon structures.
 5. A spectrum sensor set forth inclaim 1, wherein: each filter of the array of optical filters isoptically coupled to a photodetector or group of photodetectors of saidphotodetector array; the spectral responses of different filters areindependent with different peaks and dips, and distributed over entiretarget spectrum ranges with variable spectral responsivity, andpartially overlapped with multiple of neighboring filters in the array;and a pattern of the optical filter array is repeated over thephotodetector array.
 6. A spectrum sensor set forth in claim 1, whereinsaid processing unit for resolution enhancement comprises a memory forstoring spectral response data of each filter, and a processor, and aprocessing software for processing the operations.
 7. A spectrum sensorset forth in claim 1, wherein said processing unit for resolutionenhancement comprises a memory for storing spectral response data ofeach filter, and hardware logic for processing the enhancement method.8. The spectral response data set forth in claim 1, wherein said data ismeasured and stored in memory as fixed data or said data is modifiedwhen the spectral response of each filter changes.
 9. A spectrum sensorset forth in claim 1, wherein said spectral resolution enhancementcomprises a Least Square estimate process or matrices inversion orequalization process or Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse using the combinedspectral response data matrix of multiple filters and the detector, andoutput data matrix of the photodetector array.
 10. A spectrum sensor setforth in claim 9, wherein: spatial or time averaging processes are usedto improve a signal-to-noise ratio; the spatial averaging comprisesaveraging the outputs of repeating identical filters over an area beforeor after the Least Square estimate or matrices inversion or equalizationprocess or Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse, and the time averaging processcomprises reading the output of a photodetector repeatedly by shutteroperation of a photodetector, and averaging the outputs before or afterthe Least Square estimate or matrices inversion or equalization processor Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse.
 11. A spectrum sensor set forth in claim9, wherein a transmittance level of each filter is controlled by thearea of a photodetector or by a number of repeated identical filters, orby shutter operation of a photodetector.
 12. A spectrum sensor set forthin claim 9, wherein: known input constraints are used to process a LeastSquare estimate, matrices inversion, equalization process orMoore-Penrose pseudoinverse, and wherein the known input constraintcomprises positivity of the input signals, known spectral information oflight sources used, or boundary conditions of input signals.
 13. Amethod for spectral resolution enhancement for spectrum sensor,comprising: (a) receiving an incident radiation simultaneously through afilter array composed of multiple bandpass filters; (b) digitizingspectral responses of the filter array; and (c) enhancing a spectralresolution using at least one of the following operations: Least Squareestimate process, matrix inversion, equalization or pseudoinverse matrixmanipulation.
 14. A method for spectral resolution enhancement forspectrum sensor set forth in claim 13, wherein: the step of digitizingincludes using sampling and quantization; each filter of the array ofoptical filters comprises a broadband filter is optically coupled to aphotodetector or group of photodetectors of said photodetector array;wherein the spectral responses of different filters are independent withdifferent peaks and dips, and distributed over an entire target spectrumranges, and partially overlapped with multiple of filters within thearray; and a pattern of the array of optical filters is repeated overthe photodetector array.
 15. A method for noise reduction for spectrumsensor, comprising: (a) receiving an incident radiation simultaneouslythrough a filter array composed of multiple broadband bandpass filters;and (b) averaging outputs from repeated identical filters.
 16. A methodfor noise reduction for spectrum sensor set forth in claim 15, wherein:spatial or time averaging processes are used to improve asignal-to-noise ratio; the spatial averaging comprises averaging theoutputs of repeating identical filters over an area before or after thematrices inversion or equalization process or Moore-Penrosepseudoinverse, and the time averaging process comprises reading theoutput of a photodetector repeatedly by shutter operation of aphotodetector, and averaging the outputs before or after the matricesinversion or equalization process or Moore-Penrose pseudoinverse; andthe spectral responses of different filters are independent withdifferent peaks and dips, and distributed over the entire targetspectrum ranges, and partially overlapped with multiple of filterswithin the array.
 17. A wireless spectrum sensor, comprising: at leastone spectrum sensor; at least one light source; a wireless communicationunit; a power unit; and a holder; wherein: the wireless communicationunit is adapted to send and receive measured spectral data or controldata wirelessly to and from an external device; the holder connects saidspectrum sensor, said light source, and the said wireless communicationunit, and said power unit electronically; the light source unit andspectrum sensor unit are adapted to send and receive or detect lightsusing transmission or reflection.
 18. A wireless spectrum sensor setforth in claim 17, wherein said holder is adapted to wrap around atarget object, or a container of the target object to be measured, or apassage or pipeline where the target object to be measured passesthrough.
 19. A wireless spectrum sensor set forth in claim 18, whereinthe said holder, spectrum sensor, light source, wireless unit, and powerunit are be embedded in the container or the pipe or the passage.
 20. Awireless spectrum sensor set forth in claim 18, wherein the said powerunit comprises a battery or a power generator.
 21. A wireless spectrumsensor set forth in claim 20, wherein the power generator utilizeswireless RF power to generate the electrical power or utilizes the flowof said object.
 22. A wireless spectrum sensor set forth in claim 17,wherein the spectrum sensor comprises: a photodetector array; an arrayof optical filters; and a processing unit for spectral resolutionenhancement.
 23. A spectrum sensor for color, comprising: aphotodetector array; an array of optical filters; a processing unit forspectral resolution enhancement; and wherein in use: a digitizedspectral response data of said array of optical filters and saidphotodetector array is sampled, quantized and stored in digital format;and the spectral response data is mapped or transformed into CIE colorspace data.
 24. A spectrum sensor set forth in claim 23, wherein adatabase of pre-tested or pre-measured relationship between pre-testedor pre-measured spectral data and the CIE color space data is stored tobe used to map or transform the spectral response data into the CIEcolor space data.
 25. A spectrum sensing method, comprising: (a)receiving an incident radiation simultaneously through a filter arraycomposed of multiple bandpass filters; (b) digitizing spectral responsesof the filter array; and (c) generating an estimate of spectral profileof the incident radiation based on digitized spectral responses of thefilter array.
 26. A spectrum sensor, comprising: a photodetector array;an array of optical filters; and a processing unit which in use utilizesat least one of matrix inversion, Least Square estimate, equalization orpseudoinverse operations for spectral resolution enhancement.